


The Big Freeze

by miss_whimsy



Category: The Hour
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Snowed In, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-22
Updated: 2013-01-22
Packaged: 2017-11-26 12:43:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/650649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_whimsy/pseuds/miss_whimsy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>1963 was the worst winter Britain has ever seen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Big Freeze

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to Kerry for the beta. <3 
> 
> Post season 2. General spoilers for the whole series.
> 
> Thanks to the Winterwatch documentary about the winter of 1963 for inspiration.

Freddie had wanted to keep his house. Bel had wanted to keep her flat.  
   
"I'm already marrying you," she said the first time they argued about it. "Can't I keep something of my own?"  
   
"Keep your name," Freddie had said. "Keep your money. I just want to stay in my own home."  
   
"It'll be our home," Bel had argued. "Can't our home be in my flat?"  
   
They argued about it more than anything else for a good three months, until one morning, sitting in Bel's office, Freddie said, "They'll win otherwise. After everything we went through."  
   
It was a horrible thing to bring up during a fight and Freddie always did it when he wanted to get his own way, because he knew what it did to her. He was a bastard sometimes.  
   
She sent him out to film footage of the consecration of the new Coventry cathedral as a punishment and didn't use any of it.  
   
"Bel," he said, chasing her down the hall the following Tuesday morning. "I'm sorry."  
   
"You should be," she snapped. "I want to keep my flat."  
   
"Well I want to keep my house," Freddie snapped back. "But I am sorry."  
   
Bel nodded and hung up her coat, "So what are we going to do?"  
   
"Why don't you buy a new house?" Hector shouted from the newsroom. "You're both bloody idiots."  
   
They ended up selling Bel's flat, and they chose a house in Shepherd's Bush, not far from the studio, which they put in her name. Freddie kept his house and rented out the rooms, providing some decent low cost housing for anyone who might need it and providing them some extra income.  
   
They were married on the 16th of July, 1962, with Lix and Hector as witnesses, on their way to meet with several ex-cabinet ministers. Their wedding night consisted of a fish supper with Hector and Marnie, and then re-decorating their new living room.  
   
Christmas came, and they celebrated with their friends and a party at the studio. Isaac repeated the weather report every hour until everyone disappeared back to their homes for the evening, before the snow started to fall.

Freddie and Bel walked home hand in hand, reaching their front door just as the first flakes started to fall. 

"A white Christmas, finally," Freddie said. "Maybe they'll stop bleating on about it now." 

"I doubt it," Bel said, bumping her hip against the door to get it open. "Come on, it's freezing out here."

"Wait, wait," Freddie protested, pulling her back outside. "I've always wanted to kiss you in the snow."

"You did last year," Bel pointed out. "And the year before that and the year before…"

"Will you be quiet and let me kiss you?" Freddie said crossly and Bel was laughing when his lips covered hers.

They awoke on Boxing Day to a snow covered street, and not having to go anywhere they stayed wrapped in blankets, cuddled together in front of the fire. 

Two weeks later, blizzards had battered the country for two weeks, and a lot of the romance had worn off. 

"It's the coldest January since 1841," Freddie shouted as he hurried back to the bed carrying a tray, with a hot water bottle under one arm and the paper under the other.

"I don't care," Bel shouted back. "The bloody snow can bugger off. It's not news."

Freddie placed the tray on the bed and pushed back the covers enough to climb in.

"Freddie Lyon, if you put your cold feet anywhere near my body, I want a divorce."

He rolled his eyes and held out the hot water bottle for her. "What happened to for better or worse?"

"I've already done worse," Bel said, "I refuse to do your cold feet." She grabbed the hot water bottle and pushed it down to the bottom of the bed. "Okay. Put your feet on that."

"There's fifteen to twenty feet of snow in some places," he told her excitedly as he slid in beside her and immediately pulled the hot water bottle between his feet. Then he picked up the tray and settled it in his lap. He handed her a cup of tea and took a bite from a slice of toast. "The councils have no rock-salt so they can't grit anything. The ploughs can't clear enough." He opened the paper and pointed at the headline. "Eleven confirmed deaths already. We should do something about this."

"Yes, we should," Bel said and kissed his shoulder. "Absolutely. As soon as we can actually produce a show."

Freddie groaned. "We have to do something. I can't just sit around here waiting. I'm bored."

"In bed with your wife and bored," Bel mused. "Not a good sign for less than a year of marriage."

The paper was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor, followed by the tray (a little more gently) and then Freddie, pulled Bel against his chest with one arm and the covers up over their heads with the other. Bel bit her lip to stop herself laughing. "I'm not bored of you," Freddie said archly. "Don't be ridiculous. I could stay here with you forever."

"Don't be a sap," she said, but she was grinning as she kissed him. "What else does the paper say?"

"The Thames has frozen over," Freddie said with a grin, kissing her again as he started to laugh. "And the electric hare froze at the greyhound stadium in Leeds."

Bel laughed outright then, yelping when Freddie slid his still cold feet onto hers, tangling them together. "What did I say about your feet?"

"That you loved them, and me, and wanted to be married 'til death us do part," Freddie said smugly. "You're better than a hot-water bottle anyway."

She laughed again. "High praise indeed."


End file.
